General Advice
Some tips that will apply as a student in general, again from our own personal experiences, you may experience differently and if so, good for you. Things that will make your life easier You are on a medical course, it is difficult, it is time consuming and requires sacrifice. You will not have the time to go partying every day or weekend and if you do, you will quickly fall behind. That being said, do take time for yourself when you can or you will burn out. It is all about balance. There are many strategies to pass, all are good but some are more useful in the long term than others Don't believe the gossip, most of the time what people say is at best a misunderstanding, at worst, complete bullshit Sitting at the front of the class doesn't hurt. Share everything you get. Find friends, create a Dropbox and post every sheet of information or PDF of past papers or anything so everyone can access it. If you create something yourself put it on there. Share with people from other groups with different teachers and if they are decent people they will share back. Having too much information can never be a bad thing and while you will never use all of it you can choose what works best for you. Help each other out, you are not in competition and you never know when you will need help in the future. Don't monopolise teachers time, you will quickly annoy everyone in your group and that sharing information thing may stop for you. Aim for a "5" at all times, this gives you a buffer of 5,4,3 and 2 and you should never fail a single important exam However, when there are a group of exams at the same time and you can't study for the "5" for each one, pick the exams that you need to pass to focus on and work less on the optional pass exams Never focus on bonus points over "must pass" midterms If it seems that the university is working against you, it is, the university takes on more students in the first two years than it can handle for the next four, just because you got in doesn't mean you will stay in,The best thing you can do is keep passing (even if its a 2) and proving that you are too good to fail It does get easier from the 3rd year onward, but gradually Please take the time to learn Hungarian if you plan to stay for the whole 6 years, you will struggle in the hospitals if you cannot speak to your patients, most of which will not speak any English. Some exams in the later years will require you to speak to patients first alone and you will be at a disadvantage if you cannot communicate Be careful when you CV a subject, if it is a prerequisite for another subject in the next semester you will not be able to do that subject. Always try to prioritise passing prerequisite subjects and use the CV for non-prerequisites Speak to the TA's if you have one, they are students just like you who have passed the subject and usually with a high grade Being a TA is a great way of making up your elective points, although you only get one credit you have nothing new to study and no exam to do, plus you can repeat the same TA subject as many times as you want The information on this site is very top heavy, that is mainly due to that fact that once you get used to the university there are fewer and fewer surprises (and also we get lazier :) ) You know what they call a med student that passes the final grade with a "2"? DOCTOR!!!